Ameya Upadhyay

Principal, Investments

Omidyar Network, All Africa

Biography

Ameya Upadhyay invests in organizations that advance financial health and inclusion across Africa, Myanmar, and Europe for the impact investing firm Omidyar Network. He also serves on boards of several FinTech portfolio companies, helping them expand operations and reach scale.

Based out of the Mumbai office from 2012-2016, Ameya helped build Omidyar Network’s Financial Inclusion portfolio in India by leading investments in SME lenders such as IntelleGrow, NeoGrowth, and Varthana, which now have a combined book of over $250m. Ameya was also responsible for Omidyar Network’s investments in Myanmar and continues to head financial services investments in the country.

At present, Ameya leads Omidyar Network’s investments in Africa. The mix of experience from India and Africa gives Ameya a unique perspective on investing in early-stage FinTech ventures in emerging markets.

Prior to joining Omidyar Network in 2012, Ameya was a consultant at Bain & Company, where he worked with mobile network operators and IT providers in India and assisted them in improving operational efficiency and developing acquisition strategies. He was also part of Bain’s private equity practice and advised clients on potential investments in Tech, Media, and Telecom sectors. Ameya received a Bachelor of Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

His most recent investments at Omidyar Network include:

1. Pula: a FinTech that has radically restructured traditional agriculture insurance by using satellite technology and data to provide an estimated 65 million smallhold farmers across Africa, who have little or no access to financial products, with a better safety net.
2. Lidya: Lidya provides working capital to startups and small business in Nigeria within 24 hours. Since launch, the two-year-old startup has raised up to $8.2 million in funding, which is no small feat in Africa, or anywhere around the world.
3. Lendable: a “next generation” lending platform connecting alternative lenders in East Africa with impact and institutional debt investors.
4. Flutterwave: an innovative payment processing technology that provides APIs to make it easier for merchants to pay and get paid digitally across more than 30 African countries.

You can view the full list of Financial Inclusion investees here: https://www.omidyar.com/investees?initiative=Financial+Inclusion&region=All&search=#filter